American Minute with Bill Federer December 26
The first six months of the Revolution saw the Continental Army chased
out of New York, across New Jersey, and into Pennsylvania. Ranks dwindled from 20,000 to 2,000 exhausted soldiers- most leaving
at year’s end when their six-month enlistment was up.
Expecting a British invasion, the Continental Congress fled
Philadelphia and sent the word: “Until Congress shall otherwise order, General Washington shall be
possessed of full power to order and direct all things.”
In a military operation, with the password “Victory or Death,”
Washington’s troops crossed the ice-filled Delaware River at midnight
Christmas Day. Trudging in a blinding blizzard, with one soldier freezing to death,
they attacked the feared Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey, on
daybreak DECEMBER 26, 1776, capturing nearly a thousand in just over
an hour.
A few Americans were shot and wounded, including James Monroe, the
future 5th President. Washington wrote August 20, 1778:
“The Hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this-the course
of the war-that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and
more wicked that has not gratitude to acknowledge his obligations; but
it will be time enough for me to turn Preacher when my present
appointment ceases.”
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